Of whom? The person who made Quacker News?
I don't think "AI" can be mean-spirited. Surely it's analogous to standing in front of those Crazy Mirrors at sideshows that distort your appearance. The mirror takes your input and returns an unflattering output, that's its job. Quacker News is the crazy mirror.
Yes.
The “AI” didn’t do anything by itself, it was tasked to produce this. The author then made the decision to publish its output.
The fun-house mirror analogy breaks down because those being depicted aren’t opting in to this experience. It’s like a fun-house mirror that’s scraping people’s social media profile photos and mocking them for their looks.
I take your point about mirrors and consent. But if the mirrors are installed in a public place such as local park, passers-by are opted in.
One question is, should we feel offended by algorithmic insults? Isn't that like being offended by a thesaurus? If it's an "AI insult dog" web app you're visiting, you'd expect insults.